Rapid increase in the mobile subscriber base and recent emergence of new applications such as multimedia online gaming, mobile TV, streaming multimedia content, etc. have resulted in large scale increases of mobile data usage. The rapid increase of mobile data usage has motivated development of new protocols and modification of the current protocols in the wireless access and core portions of wireless networks to support efficient end-to-end packet transmission. An example of a wireless broadband network is 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is an end-to-end broadband internet protocol (IP) network that aims to provide high sector capacity, scalability, improved end-user throughputs, and reduced user plane latency, bringing a significantly improved user experience with full mobility.
As the number of users and applications in wireless networks increase, the number of internal control messages exchanged within a network entity, such as a base station, can be high. The increased number of internal control messages may cause processing delays in the network entity and, as a result, degrade the quality of service (QoS). Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce the number of internal control messages exchanged within a network entity, reduce the processing delays, and in the meantime maintain network throughput and the level of QoS provided to the users.